Together We Must Fight For Change · 2 The Pelican, Vol. 50 No.1 Marcia Biggs, Editor The Pelican...
Transcript of Together We Must Fight For Change · 2 The Pelican, Vol. 50 No.1 Marcia Biggs, Editor The Pelican...
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T H E O F F I C I A L P U B L I C A T I O N O F S I E R R A C L U B
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Spring 2017
D onald Trump is preparing an all-out assault on the laws that protect our
clean air, our clean water, our health, and the safety of our communities. But when we work together, our voices can add up - and the Trump administration will have no choice but to listen.
Following is an excerpt from the January 23
blog of Sierra Club Executive Director Michael
Brune. Inspiring words in troubled times!
“In the presidential election of 1912, Roose-velt decided to run as a Progressive against both the Republican incumbent, Taft, and the De-mocratic nominee, Woodrow Wilson. How weird was that? As a result, Wilson was elected with 41.8 percent of the popular vote.
Now we find ourselves forced to deal with the outcome of an even more bizarre election. Presi-
(Continued on page 2)
Together We Must Fight For Change
INSIDE: 2017 LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW
Some 400,000 marched in 2014 in the People’s Climate March in New York City. On April 29,
marches will take place in Washington D.C. and cities across the country./ Photo by Jim Dougherty
Join the Climate March
Plan to march for the environment and social justice on April 29 at the People’s Climate March. The main event will be in Washington D.C. but marches are being planned in cities across the country. Watch your e-mail and posts on Sierra Club Facebook and Twitter to keep up-dated on marches near you.
* * *
We all need to get involved because attacks against our clean air, water, cli-mate, public lands, and everything else will potentially come quickly and from all sides, we will need to be ready to act. Join a local rapid response team, and tell us how you want to get involved. We'll get in touch with how to take the next step lo-cally. Go to sc.org/RR and sign up.
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The Pelican, Vol. 50 No.1
Marcia Biggs, Editor
The Pelican is published by Sierra Club Florida and mailed to Sierra
Club Florida members. Annual membership dues include $1 for the
Pelican newsletter. Address all inquiries to Sierra Club Florida, 1990
Central Avenue, St. Petersburg, Florida 33712 or e-mail
Sierra Florida Executive Committee
Mark Walters, Miami Group
Kent Bailey, Tampa Bay Group
Bud Long, Turtle Coast Group
Kristine Cunningham, Volusia-Flagler
Rocky Milburn, Tampa Bay Group
Darryl Rutz, Broward Group
Alyssa Cadwalader, Loxahatchee Group
florida.sierraclub.org
dent Donald Trump and his administration represent the biggest imaginable challenge to our mission and to our values. Literally minutes into his presidency, he released an "America First" energy plan that reads like a polluter's wish list. It will make our air and water dirtier, our cli-mate and international relations more unstable, and our kids sicker.
Clearly, we have some tough fights ahead and, realisti-cally, we aren't going to win all of them. But we've been doing this for almost 125 years. We will survive President Trump. In fact, we'll do a lot more than survive. We will resist -- in the courts, in the states, in Congress, and in the marketplace. And regardless of how many battles we win or lose, both we and the movement that we're a part of will emerge stronger in the end.
He doesn't realize it, but President Trump is already building a wall -- and he’s the one who's paying for it. It’s a wall of resistance the likes of which he, his supporters, and his political allies have never seen before. What unites that resistance is not just our opposition to Trump, but our determination to build a positive, equitable, and inclusive society.
For the Sierra Club, the bridges and bonds we forge with our allies are an incredible opportunity. … We've got a lot to do. The first 100 days of Trump's administra-tion will be crucial. Help us resist! Visit our Resist Com-mand Center at www.addup.org/resist to discover the latest and most effective ways you can take action.
(Continued from page 1)
Help Us Fight the Good Fight!
National Sierra Club Election Coming The annual election for the Club's Board of Directors is
now underway. In early March, those eligible to vote (Regular and Life members) will receive in the mail (or by Internet if you chose the electronic delivery option) your na-tional Sierra Club ballot. This will include information on the candidates and where you can find additional information on the Club's website. Introductory members (i.e., new members who have not renewed their Club membership prior to January 31, 2017) are not eligible to vote.
The Board of Directors sets Club policy and budgets at the national level and works closely with the Executive Director and staff to operate the Club.
To learn more about the candidates, please visit the Club's election website at www.sierraclub.org/board/election Then make your choice and cast your vote. Voting for candidates who express your views on how the Club should grow and
change is both a privilege and responsibility of membership.
Resist with Sierra Club Sierra Club members should be watching their mail during
March when the Florida Chapter’s annual fundraising appeal letter will arrive. Please donate in response to this once-a-year solicitation. The funds collected will help the Florida chapter and our 16 groups in the fight to protect, con-serve and restore our state’s special places and wildlife. Every dollar you give to the Florida Chapter in March will be spent right here in Florida.
With your donations, we promise to fight these threats:
• Florida black bear hunting and down-listing protections for West Indian manatees.
• Fracking and drilling for oil and gas, as well as running more pipelines across Florida.
• Unfettered suburban sprawl due to diminished regulation and less planning coordination.
Your money will help us as we continue to be watchdogs for Florida’s fragile environment through supporting legislative advocates in Tallahassee and continuing legal efforts to chal-lenge harmful permitting and legislation that weakens environ-mental protections and much more.
Please fill out the contribution form in the appeal letter or send your contribution checks made out to Sierra Club Flor-ida Chapter and mail to Sierra Club, 1990 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, FL 33712. To pay with a credit card, please click our DONATE button online at sierraclub.org/florida or call Chapter Treasurer Tom Larson at (904) 247-1876.
Contributions to the Sierra Club are not tax-deductible; they support our advocacy and lobbying efforts.
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I n fall of 2015, the Clean Power Plan and
the Paris Climate Conference ushered in
a new era of global action in the growing
effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
and adapt to a changing climate. Seeing the
need for leadership, the Sierra Club
launched Ready for 100 - a national cam-
paign to drive at least 100 cities in the U.S.
to commit to achieving 100% renewable
energy by 2050.
The Suncoast Group rebranded Ready
for 100 as 100% St. Pete and developed a
campaign that built on the city’s history and
recent leadership. After much hard work, by
the end of 2016, the city of St. Petersburg
jumped on board as the first city in Florida
to make this commitment. The first “Green
City” in Florida, St. Petersburg established
an ambitious net-zero energy goal with an
Executive Order from Mayor Rick Krise-
man. While a 100% renewable energy city
draws all of its electricity from naturally re-
plenishing sources, a net-zero energy city
produces enough emission-free energy to
meet all of its needs.
This order also defined other aggressive
sustainability goals for St. Petersburg, such
as net-zero waste, the establishment of an
Office of Sustainability, and becoming a
certified STAR Community (a national sus-
tainability rating program).
After hiring local consultants Emily
Gorman and James Scott to create and man-
age 100% St. Pete, the Suncoast Group be-
gan building awareness and support around
renewable energy. Building partnerships
with city leaders, institutions and activist
groups across the city and Tampa Bay led to
successful public events like Hands Across
the Sand and the St. Pete Pride Parade.
In working to develop a viable model
for the renewable energy transition and fu-
ture campaigns in Florida, 100% St. Pete
also raised awareness through a solar coop-
erative model. FLSun’s St. Pete Solar Co-op
works with area residents to switch to solar
energy affordably.
100% St. Pete has also championed cli-
mate, resiliency and sustainability planning.
Partially as a result, the City earmarked BP
settlement funds for an Integrated Sustain-
ability Action Plan.
Looking toward 2017 and beyond, the
Suncoast Sierra Club aims to promote broad
community engagement in renewable en-
ergy, climate change awareness and other
sustainable initiatives throughout Pinellas
County.
The Florida Chapter plans to continue to
move forward with the Ready for 100 cam-
paign in Miami, using the St. Petersburg
experience as a model.
Emily Gorman contributed to this article.
St. Pete ‘Ready for 100’ a Model of Success
Kassie Rohrbach, Associate Director of Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign, speaks at the press conference with University of South Florida St Pete Chancellor Sophia Wisniewska and St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, to announce their commitments to 100% renewable energy. /Photo by Marcia Biggs
Struggling Silver Springs Gets a Reprieve - For Now Sleepy Creek Lands LLC in Marion
County (formerly known as Adena Springs
Ranch) and its Canadian billionaire owner
are seeking consumptive use permits from
the St. Johns River Water Management Dis-
trict for a massive 30,000-acre cattle opera-
tion located adjacent to Silver Springs. A
public rally in protest was held January 10
at SJRWMD headquarters in Palatka with
members of the Suwannee-St. Johns and
Northeast groups leading the charge.
The day before, SJRWMD pulled the
permit request from a meeting agenda after
environmental groups filed a petition asking
that the issue be turned over to an admini-
stration law judge for review.
The landowner is requesting to pump
an additional 1.22 million gallons per day of
groundwater from the aquifer. The legal
challenge comes on the heels of a late De-
cember water district staff announcement
that it is recommending that the district's
governing board approve the cattle opera-
tion's additional water pumping rights. Two
years ago, the water district staff had recom-
mended the board deny a slightly more
modest pumping request of 1.12 million
gallons per day.
Staffers said the reversal is based on
better computer modeling and better data
that was recently collected and analyzed.
They said the additional pumping would
have minimal impact on Silver Springs and
the Silver River. Sierra Club and other envi-
ronmental groups feel the increased pump-
ing would be detrimental to a river and
spring that is already struggling with reduced
flow and algae problems. Check out
floridaspringsinstitute.org for updates.
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By Dave Cullen
Florida Sierra Club Legislative Lobbyist
The first day of Florida’s legislative
session starts March 7, but plenty has
been happening since Election Day.
Term limits have resulted in major turn-
over; there are 66 new legislators (46 in
the House and 20 in the Senate). The
Fair Districts amendment has also had
an impact. Democrats picked up one
seat in the Senate (now 25 Rs and 15
Ds), and they picked up two seats in the
House for a count of 41 Ds and 79 Rs.
This is significant because the mi-
nority caucus now has more than one-
third of the seats in each chamber
which gives them more procedural op-
tions under the rules. The Congres-
sional races for the US House resulted
in a Democratic gain of 1 seat from the
2014 election for a breakdown of 11 Ds
and 16 Rs. By comparison, in 2010 the
balance was 19Rs and 6 Ds.
Environmental issues should not be
partisan – remember President Nixon
created the EPA. Unfortunately, the
public good has succumbed to the im-
peratives of getting elected – which
means we have to make good environ-
mental policy essential for getting votes.
(It’s not too early to start getting ready
for 2018.)
Election Day also saw a tremendous
victory for the environment in the de-
feat of the bad utility-backed solar
amendment. Congratulations to all of
you who worked so hard for that im-
portant win! (See info on SB 90 be-
low.)
There are new presiding officers of
the Florida House and Senate. Senate
President Negron’s priorities include
purchasing land in the Everglades Agri-
cultural Area to be used for a 60,000-
acre reservoir to reduce the release of
water from Lake Okeechobee that has
caused toxic algal blooms in his district
which includes the Indian River La-
goon, and also on the West Coast in the
Caloosahatchee and its estuary. A res-
ervoir south of Lake O will also allow
water to flow south where it will rehy-
drate the Everglades, help recharge the
Biscayne Aquifer that 8 million people
depend on, and bring clean, fresh water
to Florida Bay that will dilute the hyper
salinity killing off the seagrass beds.
Some important bills to Sierra and
the environment will be:
Fracking Ban: SB 442 / HB 451
Advanced Well Stimulation by Sen.
Dana Young (R – Hillsborough) / Rep.
Mike Miller (R-Orange) and Rep. Janet
Cruz (D-Hillsborough). These bills
would ban all types of fracking state-
wide, including acid matrix stimulation,
and have bipartisan support as shown
by their co-sponsors Sens. Perry,
Farmer, Latvala, and Stewart and Reps.
Clemons and C. Watson. Other good
fracking ban bills include HB 35 by
Rep. Jenne (D-Broward), SB 98 by Sen.
Farmer (D-Broward), and SJR 108 a
proposed Constitutional amendment to
ban fracking, also by Sen. Farmer.
As of this writing, no bad fracking
bill has been filed, but don’t let down
your guard.
Renewable Energy SB 90 Re-
newable Energy Source Devices by Sen.
Brandes (R-Pinellas) is a bill to imple-
ment the constitutional amendment
approved by voters on August 30, 2016
exempting renewable energy devices
like solar panels, wind, or geothermal
from being assessed for the purpose of
calculating property taxes. They would
also be exempt from the tangible per-
sonal property tax. House Majority
Leader Rep. Ray Rodrigues (R-Lee) is
expected to file the companion bill, but
nothing is filed yet. Sierra is working to
pass this implementing bill which will
encourage more families to convert to
solar and reduce the use of fossil fuels.
SB 456 Public Utilities by Sen. Rod-
riguez (D- Miami-Dade) exempts pro-
ducers of renewable solar-based energy
from being defined as a “public utility”
when they sell the energy to customers
on the same property the solar energy is (Continued on page 5)
2017 Legislative Preview
Stay Informed
Watch for e-mail alerts when important environmental issues are coming
up. You can receive alerts via e-mail by joining the Sierra Club’s FLORIDA
REPORT by sending a request to be included on
the listserve at [email protected]
Join the Fight
Not a Sierra Club member? Join or renew your
membership to receive our e-mails on the many
actions Sierra Club is taking to resist the anti-
environmental attacks by the Trump administration.
Your help is needed now more than ever! Go to sierraclub.org to sign peti-
tions, renew your membership and take action. Be sure to watch for e-
mails and join the Facebook page of your regional group to keep abreast of
programs, protests and political meetings. To find your regional group, go
to sierraclub.org/florida/groups
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produced. This exempts them from
regulation from the Public Service
Commission and could increase the use
of solar energy for shopping malls,
apartment complexes, and the like.
Water bill fixes Sierra Club Flor-
ida, 1000 Friends of Florida, and the
Florida Springs Council continue to
work on improving last year’s big water
bill and have drafted a package of
amendments to tighten up loopholes,
promote water conservation, and cor-
rect some easily fixed issues in statute
such as preventing industrial wastewa-
ter disposal facilities, new septic tank
installations, and CAFOs from being
established on lands most vulnerable to
conveying pollution to an Outstanding
Florida Spring. Sen. Farmer will carry
the bill in the Senate and Rep. Jenne is
helping us find a House sponsor.
Recycling SB 162 / HB 93 Dis-
posable Plastic Bags by Sen. Jose Javier
Rodriguez (D-Miami-Dade) / Rep.
David Richardson (D-Miami-Dade)
These bills would establish a pilot pro-
gram to allow coastal communities
with fewer than 100,000 residents to
regulate plastic bags as long as they do
not impose fees or taxes. The pilot
program would run for 1 ½ years, and
the results would be available to inform
the legislature regarding rescinding the
current preemption of local control in
this area.
Everglades land purchase for
reservoir SB 10 Water Resources by
Sen. Bradley (R-Baker, Bradford, Clay,
Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Lafayette,
Levy, Suwannee, Union counties and
part of Marion) is intended to accom-
plish President Negron’s plan for a
reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee.
Environmental Regulation SB
198 Environmental Regulation Com-
mission by Sen. Stewart (D-Orange)
would require vacancies on the Envi-
ronmental Regulatory Commission to
be filled within 90 days and requires a
supermajority of 5 members out of 7 to
approve changes to standards for air
pollution, water quality standards and
numerous others. The bill was filed
because of the ERC’s approval of new
weaker Human Health Toxicity Stan-
dards when there were two longstand-
ing vacancies on the board, including
the one for an environmental represen-
tative. The changes were approved by
a 3-2 vote.
Amendment 1 Related bills A
number of bills have been filed that use
Amendment 1 funds for various pur-
poses. Some of these are:
SB 10 – Sen. Bradley’s bill for the
reservoir south of the Lake
SB 112 Flood Hazard Mitigation by
Sen. Brandes to provide up to $50M
for mitigation of flood prone areas
SB 230 Nonnative Animals by Sen.
Artiles would provide $600,000 over
two years to the FWC to contract
hunting teams to kill tegu lizards, a
variety of pythons, the green anaconda,
and Nile monitors on state lands under
the FWC, and to enter into memo-
randa of agreement with other govern-
ment entities to carry out hunts on
their properties.
SB 234 Land Acquisition Trust
Fund by Sen. Bradley devoting $35
million to the St. Johns River and its
tributaries or the Keystone Heights
Lake Region
HB 551 Onsite Sewage Treatment
and Disposal Systems by Rep. Charlie
Stone (R-Levy and part of Marion)
would devote a minimum of $20 mil-
lion to retrofitting septic systems, con-
verting septic to sewer, and for muck
dredging and stormwater improve-
ments in the Indian River Lagoon area.
The bill also requires DEP to develop
septic system remediation plans.
In evaluating the merits of these or
any bill using Amendment 1 funds, our
attorneys recommend using the follow-
ing yardstick:
Amendment 1 funds can be used to acquire, improve, restore, and manage conservation and recreation lands. They are not funds for pro-grams with environmental benefits - it must be one of those four categories of expenditure and it has to be on conser-vation and recreation lands.
Bears HB 491 Florida Black Bears
by Rep. Amy Mercado (D-Orange)
would preserve bear habitat, establish a
source of funding for Bear-resistant
trash containers, limit activities that
would reduce natural food sources for
bears such as saw palmetto berries and
acorns, and establish a moratorium on
recreational bear hunting until 2027
while a population trend study is done.
Septic Tanks HB 285 Onsite Sew-
age Treatment and Disposal Systems
by Rep. Randy Fine (R- Brevard) re-
quires that onsite sewage treatment and
disposal systems be inspected by certi-
fied professionals at point of sale in
real estate transactions
Public Notification of Spills SB
532 Public Notification of Pollution by
Sen. Galvano (R-Manatee and part of
Hillsborough) Requires owners or op-
erators of facilities to inform the De-
partment of Environmental Protection
within 24 hours of the release of a
substance listed by DEP as reportable.
DEP is then required within 24
hours to publish that information on
its website and to send out email notifi-
cation to the public, local health de-
partments, local governments, and
news media subscribing to the notifica-
tion list serve. This bill was spurred by
the Mosaic sinkhole that released ra-
dioactivity into the groundwater.
Fight threats to decrease or abolish cur-
rent Florida environmental protections at Ad-
vocacy Day March 22 in Tallahassee. See
Page 6 for more information,
(Continued from page 4)
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Around the State
The An-
cient Is-
lands
Group
partnered
with the
Heartland
Chapter of
the Florida
Native
Plant Soci-
ety on
January 21 in a Florida Arbor Day Celebration planting of
1,000 bald cypress saplings in the floodplain of Lake Hancock at
the Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. Nearly 100 volunteers
attended; the new trees build upon 500 that were planted last
year.
Suncoast Sierra members, accompanied by four electric
vehicles, marched in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade
on Jan. 16 in downtown St. Petersburg. After the parade,
the group exhibited at a Family Fun Day.
In “Walk for Water, Speak for Springs” on January 28, wa-
ter protectors gathered in Dunnellon to oppose the con-
struction of the Sabal Trail Pipeline /Photo by Merrillee
Malwitz-Jipson
Sierra Club Florida celebrated the closing of another coal-
fired power plant. Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) re-
tired the Cedar Bay Generating Plant, a 250-megawatt coal-fired
facility located in Jacksonville. We are also celebrating the defeat
of the ROGG (River of Grass Greenway), a paved hike and
bike trail from Naples to Miami that would have destroyed wet-
lands and crossed sacred Native American lands.
More than 30 residents of Lake Okeechobee’s Glades Com-
munities gathered for the "Stop The Burn! Go Green Harvest!”
Community Workshop on December 3 in Belle Glade. Sierra
organizer Patrick Ferguson of the Stop Sugar Field Burning
Campaign spoke about the Club’s work to end the harmful, out-
dated practice of pre-harvest sugarcane burning and switch to
the burn-free, modern alternative of "green harvesting."
Florida Sierra Club organizer Diana Umpierre has been
announced the new president of the International Dark Sky-
Association. Congrats, Diana!
Alyssa Cadwalader, who serves on the
executive committee of the Loxahatchee
Group, has been elected to the Florida Chap-
ter Executive Committee.
The Sierra Club and the environment
lost two dedicated advocates in 2016,
Greater Charlotte Harbor Group’s founding
member and political chair Ruth Bromberg and former Bro-
ward Group Chair Tanya Tweeton.
Rally in Tally March 22 Sierra Club Florida is joining ReThink Energy Florida, En-
vironment Florida, Food and Water Watch-Florida, Floridians
Against Fracking, Florida Conservation Voters, Physicians
for Social Responsibility and other groups for an Advocacy
Day on March 22 from 10 am to 4 pm at the Capitol in Talla-
hassee. We will be calling on our legislators to protect Flor-
ida’s springs, support renewable energy, and ban fracking! A
rally and press conference will be held, followed by visits to
our legislators.
Transportation is being planned from several cities across
the state and we will provide training on the bus and the eve-
ning before so you have the skills you need to effectively ad-
vocate. Check with your group for carpools and sharing lodg-
ing. For more information and to register, please go to
rethinkenergyflorida.org/reclaiming_florida_s_future
Cadwalader
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P rotests, marches, rallies and public
outcry across Florida in opposition to
Sabal Trail Pipeline are gaining national
attention with Sierra Club firmly in the
trenches. Opposition demonstrations have
been held at several cities across the state
including the Capitol in Tallahassee, and at
Suwannee River State Park and Dunnellon
where construction is underway to cross
directly beneath the Suwannee and Withla-
coochee rivers.
The fight against the 515-mile pipeline
that will transport fracked natural gas across
704 water bodies in Alabama, Georgia, and
Florida will head to a hearing in U.S. Dis-
trict Court of Appeals in Washington D.C.
on April 18. This pipeline is part of the
bigger Southeast Market Pipeline Project
connecting to four other pipelines totaling
685.5 miles in length. In Florida, some 1.1
billion cubic feet of fracked gas a day will
travel across 15 counties: Alachua, Gil-
christ, Suwannee, Levy, Hamilton, Marion,
Citrus, Lake, Osceola, Sumter, Okeecho-
bee, Orange, Polk, St. Lucie and Martin.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commis-
sion (FERC) is responsible for regulating
and permitting these pipelines. Sierra Club,
Flint Riverkeeper and Chattahoochee
Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit alleging FERC
did not analyze the climate impacts of the
project and did not research less environ-
mentally destructive routes and impacts on
environmental justice communities. Our
suit challenges FERC’s approval of the
entire Southeast Market Pipeline.
The consortium of companies behind
the project is Spectra Energy of Houston,
NextEra Energy of Juno Beach (the parent
company of Florida Power and Light) and
Duke Energy. Sierra Club, joined by many
water protecting groups such as Gulf Resto-
ration Network, Our Santa Fe River,
WWALS, Suwannee Riverkeepers and Flor-
ida Defenders of the Environment, has been
actively trying to stop the construction of
Sabal Trail. But taking on the energy em-
pires has been challenging.
The Sierra Club, along with other groups,
requested that the Army Corps of Engineers
do an Environmental Impact Study as the
construction will significantly impact the
fragile karst terrain, springs and the Floridan
Aquifer. The Army Corp denied the request.
The horizontal boring that they are doing
under the rivers has caused sinkholes and
inadvertent releases of drilling mud; more
problems are expected.
Sierra Club’s Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson
has been at the forefront of the fight to
stop Sabal Trail as an organizer, activist and
powerful speaker against the pipeline.
“Citizens involvement is at an unprece-
dented all-time high throughout every cor-
ner of Florida,” says Malwitz-Jipson, “The
overwhelming outcry is to cease and desist
this disruptive boondoggle. Despite all of
the public work to get the word out on the
terrible fossil fuel project, it is still proceed-
ing at a rapid fire speed.”
There are mounting permit violations
and non-compliance issues with the con-
struction of this project, she adds. The
pending lawsuit is hope for optimism.
This pipeline is a huge threat to the Flori-
dan Aquifer which provides more than 60%
of our of fresh drinking water supply. The
construction of the pipeline is destroying
burrows of gopher tortoises, a keystone
species whose burrows create habitat for
more than 300 other species.
“The pipeline is not only destructive to
our rural communities and wildlife corridors,
it is also an energy infrastructure project that
continues the proliferation of dangerous
fracking wells up north in the shale forma-
tions,” says Malwitz-Jipson.
Sabal Trail: Standing Up Against Big Oil & Gas
Here the pipeline is preparing
to be laid where it will go
under the Suwannee River.
To see photos of the construction
and impacts of the pipeline, go to pho-
tographer Lynne Buchanan’s blog at
http://www.lynnebuchanan.com/blog/
To learn more about how you can
get involved, contact Merrillee Malwitz-
Jipson, merrillee.malwitz-
[email protected] and Like us on
Facebook at facebook.com/sierraclubfl
Sabal Trail Pipeline extends through
Florida, Georgia and Alabama. The final
segment in Florida is nearly finished.
8
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Mining impacts a constant threat to environment The Sierra Club Florida Phosphate Com-
mittee, various leaders and Sierra members
have been very active in mining issues across
the state. A roundup of current news:
■ The Phosphate Committee sent com-
ments to the FDEP and ACOE opposing
Mosaic's application for an 18,000-acre mine
in DeSoto County and an application for a
7,500-acre mine in Hardee County. They
also sent a letter to FDEP questioning their
decision to allow Mosaic's release of diluted
contaminated water from the New Wales
sinkhole into the Alafia River. The Commit-
tee has been monitoring FDEP Daily Re-
ports with test results for wells on or near
Mosaic's New Wales facility where the mas-
sive sinkhole occurred last summer.
■ In January, a formal statement was
submitted to Manatee BOCC opposing Mo-
saic’s request to approve its Master Mining
Plan and rezone 3,596 acres of their Wingate
East property for phosphate mining citing
destruction of wetlands and the threat of
ecological damage. A decision was ex-
pected in mid-February.
■ The Union County BOCC voted
unanimously to approve a one-year morato-
rium on mine permit applications. This ex-
tends a previous one-year moratorium and
was in response to a proposed 10,775-acre
phosphate mine bordering the Santa Fe
River, an Outstanding Florida Waterway.
Thanks to Suwannee St. Johns group for
doggedly working on this issue.
■ The Adventure Coast Committee of the
Suncoast and Tampa Bay groups is working
to stop the expansion of a limerock mine on
294 acres in North Central Pasco County.
The mine is within a half mile of a wellfield
that supplies millions of gallons of water to
Pinellas County every day and is part of the
Weeki Wachee springshed.
Phosphate Committee Chair Bev Grif-
fiths encourages all members who live near
mining operations to get involved. “It is the
responsibility of our local Sierra Club
Groups where mining occurs to be vigi-
lant,” she says.
“These Groups have done a great job
of mobilizing Club members and concerned
citizens to take action--to write, call, and
attend county workshops and land use meet-
ings. It is important to our democracy that
elected officials and government appointees
hear from citizens.”
Phosphate mining in Polk County
/Photo by Jacki Lopez